Nilay Patel

I know Dario won't even say AGI.

But they are much louder about, hey, we think it's alive.

Like he literally is in the Times.

Dario is in the Times saying –

I don't know what kind of consciousness it is.

I can't quite describe it.

They're right up on that line.

The AI field is full of true believers.

It's full of people who think they can really push the boundaries of consciousness with computers.

Is it having an impact on this market that companies like OpenAI and Google are so nakedly commercial in the way that consumer product companies have to be commercial?

They're just doing ads.

They're trying to get you to buy shoes.

Anthropic is an enterprise company, so you don't see the commercial side of their business quite as much.

And so they can kind of hint that they think they're on the verge of the next stage of evolution?

We have to take another quick break.

We'll be back in just a minute.

We're back with Verge Senior Reporter Hayden Field.

There's a bigger picture here as well.

These companies have grown so big, with valuations so extraordinary, on top of plans to go public, that we're about to see a historic level of wealth generation for people in the AI industry.

That's not to say that any of these big AI firms are suddenly on the cusp of generating so much revenue that investors are going to get an actual return on their investment.